Spatiality and Symbolic Expression: On the links between place and Culture

Publication Title

The Space of Language and the Place of Literature

Publisher

Palgrave Mcmillan

Publisher Location

New York

Status

Published

Peer Reviewed

1

Optional Fields

Search Keyword

Literature, language, Agamben, Heidegger, Blanchot, Eluard

Abstract

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Language moves; it moves from and to places, and
in-between places. It goes out of the subject that speaks it and reaches out to
the listener/s, but it also goes inside the subject in order to be spoken. At
times, however, language does not transit; it remains still, unpronounceable,
unidentifiable, invisible and silent with us and yet without us. Who is saying
this? Language itself. Let us take for example the Italian and the French
expressions non mi viene la parola, les mots ne me viennent pas ŕ l’esprit,
which describe a temporal vocal aphasia and a lapse in communication in the
manner of a justification. It is as if the speaker relates not so much his forgetfulness
– a simple moment of amnesia – as the culpability of language that, for some
strange and inexplicable – as well as unexpected – reasons, has not arrived to its
proper destination, that is the subject of utterance. The subject is ready and
prepared to receive the word, and yet the word does not comply; it ignores and
neglects the subject who, as a consequence, appears emptied, vulnerable, and
fragile in his surprising mumbling in search of words. But where is it that
language has gone? And how is it possible to find it? Can we really look,
search, for it; can we recover it, and, with it, our composure?